Heat closes regular season with win vs. Hawks. Next up, road play-in game vs. Hornets on Tuesday
Five takeaways from the Miami Heat’s 143-117 win over the Atlanta Hawks (46-36) on Sunday night at Kaseya Center on the final day of the NBA regular season. With the Heat (43-39) closing the regular season in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, it will again need to go through the play-in tournament to qualify for the playoffs:
Despite Sunday’s win, the Heat will still need to win two consecutive win-or-go-home road play-in tournament games just to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed.
The Heat, which will take part in the play-in tourney for the fourth straight year, needed a win over the Hawks and a Charlotte Hornets loss to the New York Knicks on Sunday to move past the Hornets for ninth place in the East. This would have allowed the Heat to host the No. 9 vs. No. 10 East play-in game.
But with the Knicks sitting most of their regulars on Sunday since they were already locked into the East’s No. 3 playoff seed, the Hornets routed the Knicks 110-96 to stay in ninth place and keep the Heat in 10th place in the East.
As the East’s 10th-place team, the Heat will need to win two straight road play-in games to make the playoffs as the conference’s No. 8 seed and clinch a first-round matchup against the top-seeded Detroit Pistons. If the Heat advances to the playoffs, Game 1 of the best-of-7 series against the Pistons would be at 6:30 p.m. Sunday in Detroit and would air on NBC and Peacock.
The Heat will open the play-in tournament against the Hornets in Charlotte on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. All play-in games will be aired exclusively on Prime.
A loss to the Hornets would end the Heat’s season, but a win would keep the Heat’s season alive and move it one victory away from making the playoffs for the seventh straight season.
“We’re here, and now we just have to make the most of this,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said of the play-in tournament. “There’s no other way than just to absolutely go for it.”
With a win over the Hornets in Charlotte, the Heat would advance to take on the loser of the East’s No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in game. The East’s No. 7 vs. No. 8 play-in matchup will be between the seventh-place Philadelphia 76ers and eighth-place Orlando Magic in Philadelphia on Wednesday.
In this scenario, the Heat would go on the road to take on the loser between the Magic and 76ers on Friday in another elimination play-in game. The winner of Friday’s matchup would make the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed and move on to a first-round series against the Pistons.
“It’s a Game 7,” Spoelstra said of Tuesday’s win-or-go-home game against the Hornets. “So, I just want our guys to take on that challenge and do whatever is necessary to get that one. You can’t think ahead of it, you can’t think of two up, two down. You have to stay in the absolute present moment of every single possession.”
The Heat has successfully escaped the play-in tournament in each of the last three seasons to qualify for the playoffs as the East’s No. 8 seed. Last season, Miami became the first 10th-place team in the play-in tournament era to make the playoffs.
“Obviously, we’ve had too much experience in the play-in,” Heat center and captain Bam Adebayo said. “But understanding what’s at stake, and truly how bad do you really want to get in this dance. That’s what it boils down to.”
As for Sunday’s regular-season finale, the Heat never trailed. Miami led from start to finish, pulling ahead by as many as 26 points.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. led the Heat with 26 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the field and 1-of-3 shooting on threes, one rebound and five assists in 26 minutes off the bench.
Adebayo finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks for the Heat.
Sunday marked the 12th time that the Heat scored 140 or more points in a game this season. That’s a franchise record for 140-point games in a single season, as the Heat totaled 140 or more points in just eight regular-season games in franchise history before doing it 12 times this regular season.
The Hawks sat most of their regulars on Sunday, holding out Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels, Jalen Johnson, Jonathan Kuminga, CJ McCollum and Onyeka Okongwu.
“I don’t want this season to end,” Jaquez said ahead of Tuesday’s elimination game in Charlotte. “I love these guys, I love this locker room, and you’re not guaranteed that this is going to be the same team we’re going to have next year. So you want to make the most of it.”
The good news is the Heat escaped the regular-season finale relatively healthy.
None of the 14 available Heat players needed to leave Sunday’s game early because of an injury.
“We’re heading into this game relatively healthy,” Spoelstra said.
The only Heat players unavailable on Sunday due to injuries were Simone Fontecchio (left ankle soreness), Nikola Jovic (left ankle sprain), Pelle Larsson (right lower leg contusion) and Dru Smith (right big toe sprain).
Among those four injured Heat players, Larsson has played the biggest role this season. But it appears that Larsson’s injury is a short-term issue and he could be available for the start of the play-in tournament.
Before Sunday’s game, Spoelstra labeled Larsson as day-to-day with a leg contusion that he suffered in Friday’s road win over the Washington Wizards.
“He’ll get as much treatment as he can,” Spoelstra said of Larsson, who has played in all 70 games he has been available for this regular season. “He’s day-to-day, so that’s a good sign.”
Due to its season-long injury issues and inconsistent play, the Heat finished the regular season with 27 different starting lineups used.
The Heat went with its 27th different starting unit in the regular-season finale, opening Sunday’s game with a lineup of Davion Mitchell, Tyler Herro, Andrew Wiggins, Adebayo and Kel’el Ware.
Surprisingly, this five-man group had only played seven minutes together this season prior to making its first start of the season together on Sunday.
It’s worth noting that the Heat used the double-big look of Adebayo and Ware to start the final two games of the regular season after going away from the duo. The last time Miami started Adebayo and Ware together prior to this two-game stretch came on March 14.
After a slow start to the season for Adebayo-Ware lineups, the Heat actually entered the Sunday outscoring teams by 7.9 points per 100 possessions in the 492 minutes that Adebayo and Ware played together this season.
Following Friday’s win over the Wizards, Spoelstra hinted that he could make a late-season lineup to keep Ware in the starting lineup for the postseason. This would shift Larsson to a bench role.
“A lot of it was trying to get Kel’el into that lineup,” Spoelstra said following the win over the Wizards. “Kel’el is really important to what we’re trying to do. We all know about his upside. This can get him next to Bam [Adebayo], stabilize him a little bit to start the game. And then it gives us a little bit of flexibility as the game moves on.
“Sometimes in the last couple of weeks, some of the lineups with Bam have been really good. And then we end up going longer with that, and it just ends up being longer for Kel’el sitting on the bench. And he’s a key player for us, so this allows him to get some minutes right out of the gate.”
But with Larsson out on Sunday because of an injury, it was hard to get a true read on whether this Ware-for-Larsson starting lineup change is actually going to stick for the start of the postseason.
Heat guard Norman Powell again played as a reserve after being used as a starter for most of the season, and he played well on Sunday.
Powell, who was the Heat’s lone All-Star this season, played as a reserve for the third straight game he has been available for and for the sixth time this season on Thursday. He started in his first 49 appearances this season before this recent stint as a reserve.
Powell, who has been playing through a lingering groin injury and recently missed time due to an illness, was sharp. He closed Sunday’s win with 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the field, 3-of-7 shooting on threes and 6-of-6 shooting from the foul line in 23 minutes off the bench.
“It’s been a tough stretch for him with the injuries and the sickness,” Spoelstra said of Powell. “He hasn’t been able to get into full rhythm. This one looked like a little bit more like himself.”
Powell was part of a Heat bench rotation on Sunday that also included Jaquez, Kasparas Jakucionis and Keshad Johnson. Miami then emptied its bench late in the blowout win.
Despite closing the regular season with 10 losses in its final 15 games, the Heat still finished this regular season with six more wins than last regular season.
The Heat closed this regular season with a 43-39 record after finishing last regular season with a 37-45 record. The issue is it didn’t get the Heat any higher in the standings, as Miami finished in 10th place in the East for the second straight regular season.
Two things that helped decide the Heat’s record this regular season — its struggles on the road and against quality teams.
Miami closed this regular season with a 26-15 home record and a 17-24 road record. Miami also finished this regular season with a 22-31 record against teams that ended with a .500 record or better and a 21-8 record against teams that ended with a losing record.
The Heat has now finished with a winning record in six of the last seven regular seasons. Miami has actually only finished with a losing regular-season record in six of Pat Riley’s 31 seasons with the organization.
This story was originally published April 12, 2026 at 8:18 PM.
